Smoky, salty, greasy, crispy! Nobody will think it actually is bacon, but it fits that culinary niche better than anything else you can make out of garbage in 5 minutes!
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Matrix Logic: The New Baby’s Relatives
Matrix logic or logic grid puzzles challenge you to figure out the characteristics of several people, using a series of clues, marking "yes" answers with an O and "no" answers with an X in a grid of boxes. You can see an example grid in this Wikipedia article. My 12-year-old Nicholas enjoys matrix logic almost … Continue reading Matrix Logic: The New Baby’s Relatives
Vegetarian Yuletide Stew
Food styling and photography by Nicholas Efran. My brother Ben Stallings invented this meal last night, and all 8 assembled relatives liked it! The red and green colors are appropriate to the season. It's healthy, inexpensive, and quick to make. To make about 10 main-dish servings, you will need 1 small onion 2 Tbsp. olive … Continue reading Vegetarian Yuletide Stew
Stratospheric Flight: electronic music
My man of many talents has composed and recorded several electronic music tracks. Here's the latest! Click here if the embedded link below does not work for you.
Flexican Cornbread Pizza
This recipe has a history. It started with my mom's trusty recipe for Mexican Pizza. Then came my serendipitous discoveries that (a) it can be adapted to a non-Mexican-flavored version, which my family loves just as much as the Mexican version, and (b) it can be baked in a toaster-oven. More than a year ago, … Continue reading Flexican Cornbread Pizza
Our Green Christmas Tree (now with photos!)
Back in 2007, I wrote about the little tree Daniel and I, with the help of former housemate Bill, made for our first Christmas together, back in 1996. Made mostly of repurposed materials, this is a great alternative to cutting down a real tree or using a factory-made artificial tree. It's still going strong! I'm finally … Continue reading Our Green Christmas Tree (now with photos!)
Bean Wraps with Smoked Gouda and Pineapple
UPDATE: Eight months later, I'm sharing this recipe at Meatless Monday. It's a great quick meal at any time of year because all the ingredients are shelf-stable except for the cheese and wrapper; it doesn't use fresh foods that are in season at a particular time of year--unless you live in pineapple country! Don't eat … Continue reading Bean Wraps with Smoked Gouda and Pineapple
How to use long-frozen cookie dough
When my parents visited us the Christmas before last, my mother made her grandmother's traditional animal cookies: a buttery dough that you roll out and cut with cookie cutters (they don't have to be animal shapes, of course) and bake and frost. The recipe makes a huge batch, so she divided it and froze two … Continue reading How to use long-frozen cookie dough
No-Bake Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie for Summer
This is not so much a recipe as an example of how to work with the food, and the weather, that you happen to have. Last weekend was very hot and humid, and we had some ingredients that needed to be used, including just two potatoes from our farm share--not enough to make a baked … Continue reading No-Bake Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie for Summer
CONTEST: Name This Recipe!
I've developed a main dish that my family really likes, but we can't figure out what to call it! "That non-Mexican-flavored Mexican Pizza that fits in the toaster-oven" or "Beans and veggies and herbs baked on cornbread" is too cumbersome. Surely someone on the Internet will be able to think of the perfect, short, catchy … Continue reading CONTEST: Name This Recipe!
FREE Earth-friendly Party Decorations!
Want to decorate your home for a party? You could buy a bunch of bright-colored paper streamers or rubber balloons that you inflate with air. These things are inexpensive, but they're typically made in China by exploited workers in polluting factories and then shipped halfway around the world to you, wasting a bunch of fossil … Continue reading FREE Earth-friendly Party Decorations!
Cucumber Salad
My family has been loving this salad since we invented it a couple of months ago by adding ingredients to a recipe from The Frugal Gourmet for a "Jewish cucumber salad". It's sort of pickle-like yet without dill. It's sort of coleslaw-like yet with a very different texture. It goes well with sandwiches or burgers. … Continue reading Cucumber Salad
Healthy Alternative to French Onion Dip for Veggies or Chips
I served this dip at coffee hour last Sunday and got many questions about the ingredients and requests for the recipe, so here it is! I actually developed this recipe for a coffee hour not long after I joined my church in 1996, when I was not as much into healthy eating as I am … Continue reading Healthy Alternative to French Onion Dip for Veggies or Chips
My Coupon Organizer
This is a project similar to our recipe binder, using reused materials to make something that does not look perfectly polished but is cheerful and works well for our household's specific needs. One difference is that this project started with a purchase of something specifically for the project: I bought this nylon thingy (specifically marketed … Continue reading My Coupon Organizer
Martinopoly: What My Kid Did for Martin Luther King Day
Martin Luther King, Jr., has been one of my heroes as long as I can remember. Since my son Nicholas was 3 years old, I've made a point of doing something on Martin Luther King Day each year to remember Dr. King and his principles. That first year, we discussed the basics of the civil … Continue reading Martinopoly: What My Kid Did for Martin Luther King Day
Welcome to Earth Suburb.
This is one of my favorite games. I like to build these maps using the cards I designed in 2001. I must have built hundreds of suburban developments by now, but I have never posted enough photos to give a clear idea of what this free card game is really like. At first, it may … Continue reading Welcome to Earth Suburb.
Pittsburgh Yam Fake (a sweet potato dish for summer!)
This is the dish to make if you wish you could make New England Yam Bake, but it's 85 degrees in your kitchen and anyway what you have handy is 2 cups of sweet potatoes that were sliced raw, frozen, and thawed (see the first Saturday of Three Weeks of Vegetarian Dinners for historical details) … Continue reading Pittsburgh Yam Fake (a sweet potato dish for summer!)
FREE computer game: Hall of Heads
My partner Daniel joined a group of computer game programmers who wrote 38 interactive fiction (text adventure) games in tribute to the 20th anniversary of Apollo 18, the They Might Be Giants album with 38 tracks. Each game has the same title as one song on the album. Daniel wrote "Hall of Heads". That is, … Continue reading FREE computer game: Hall of Heads
Our Recipe Binder
I have seen online many beautiful recipe binders created by full-time homemakers who have master's degrees in scrapbooking or just great skill in making things look perfect. Daniel and I are part-time haphazard homemakers, both of whom like to cook, so we have had to come up with a method of recipe storage that works … Continue reading Our Recipe Binder
Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe
Two years ago, I developed a recipe for Raisin Bran Bread to use up a bulk purchase of raisin bran cereal whose flakes were so big and hard and rough that it was painful to eat! We love the bread, so I actually bought more of that aggressive raisin bran whenever Costco issued a coupon, … Continue reading Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe
